Could Jupiter's moon be habitable? NASA sends 'Europa Clipper' to find out

A NASA spacecraft designed to study Jupiter's moon “Europa” was launched on Monday, CNN reported.

The Europa Clipper, temporarily delayed by Hurricane Milton, was successfully launched from Florida, and NASA confirmed that its communication systems are functioning as planned.

The spacecraft will be NASA's first dedicated to studying a distant ice-covered moon in our solar system to determine whether it could be habitable for life. 

"It’s going to change our understanding of our place in the universe if this is a world that could support life,” said Jenny Kampmeier, a science systems engineer at NASA.

Largest spacecraft

The spacecraft contains nine different instruments designed to investigate the ocean beneath Europa's frozen surface.

“The instruments work together hand in hand to answer our most pressing questions about Europa,” said Robert Pappalardo, the mission’s project scientist at JPL.

“We will learn what makes Europa tick, from its core and rocky interior to its ocean and ice shell to its very thin atmosphere and the surrounding space environment.” CNN quoted. 

The Europa Clipper is NASA's largest spacecraft built for a planetary mission. It is 100 feet (30.5 meters) long and cost over $5.2 billion.

After launching, the ship will travel 1.8 billion miles (2.9 billion kilometers) and arrive at Jupiter in April 2030.

As it travels, it will conduct flybys of Mars and then Earth, using each planet's gravity to help it save fuel and increase speed on its way to Jupiter.

Its solar panels will help the “Europa Clipper” use sunlight to power the spacecraft’s technology during its study of Europa, which is five times farther from the sun than Earth.

Habitable for life

While the NASA spacecraft isn’t designed to search for evidence of life on Europa, it will use its technology to see whether life could be possible within an ocean on another planet in our solar system.

Astronomers already believe that Europa holds the basic conditions for life, such as water, energy, and the necessary chemistry.

Researchers hope that the spacecraft will gather evidence on whether these ingredients coexist in a way that could make the moon's environment capable of supporting life.